Q. I have a challenging chart to integrate and feel strong in the world. I know in 2014 Uranus will conjunct my ascendant to give strong force to a boomerang yod. I am trying to be prepared for what comes up. Any suggestions? Thank you. A. This is a great use of transits, knowing that something big is coming up and starting to prepare for it, especially with something as radical as Uranus as he will hit the unprepared with, at times, shattering force. And even more so when Pluto is still working in tandem with him, adding even more potency and deep transformative edges to the forces of change in yours, and everyone else’s, world. Uranus on the Ascendant is the signal of a series of radical changes to identity, to the way you project that identity into the world through your outer persona. It shatters old social masks, radicalises your self expression, invites more of your authentic individuality to surface, however eccentric, iconoclastic, unique and innovative.

Anything big crossing the Ascendant is also an initiation and in the case of Uranus, into the mysteries of the archetypal, transcendent worlds, the beginning of whole era of your life informed by spirit in general and specifically the spirit of change. It’s like Merlin becomes embodied into your outer identity, making you a magical initiator of change for others, a direct threat to rigid conservatism and a lightning rod for the energies of the “higher mind”. (I’m listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as I’m writing this, so excuse the hyperbole!)

Obviously anything as life changing as this will create a great deal of inner and outer chaos, as it must do to break up old patterns in yourself. Our Ascendants act as our social masks and so are derived from early formative experiences, the deepest of which is our actual birth and all the energies around that moment of taking first breath, that initiation as the separate entity from the world of the womb and our mothers.

As that tiny one, we make a whole holographic scan at that point upon which we make deep subliminal decisions about the world and how to be in it on the basis of our experience of the energies around the whole birth process. Uranus can have us revisit the birth experience in order to break open its limiting aspects, while liberating more of the essence of the individual self. That Pluto is simultaneously squaring the Ascendant, targeting the same territory has me encouraging you to work directly on its through primal therapy, breathwork or “rebirthing” or meditations that work on womb conditioning.

With an Aries Ascendant you were always going to become a vibrant, energetic individual but the complexity of the yods* and other factors, including your Virgo Sun and Scorpio Moon, make for a tremendous amount of confusion around finding a clear path for this fire aspect of your nature. Certainly your fire will be stimulated, to put it mildly, and with it will come great chaos, as every part of the yods get activated.

It will oppose your Venus in Libra, subsequently using relationships challenges to break open the Neptune/Moon conjunction’s tendency to get too psychically entangled with partners and, to stir your birth Uranus/Pluto conjunction out of the earthy confines of Virgo. Both will invite greater expressions of individual freedom in both your relationship and work life, while awakening more of the psychospiritual gifts of the Moon/Neptune mystic and the extraordinary earth magic of the Virgoan priestess. What a juicy combination they are and you will get to know more of them after the initial chaos.

Uranus will also throw some depth-charges into Pisces, to break up the inhibiting aspects of Saturn in Pisces in the 12th House, taking the conditional lids off your access to the inner worlds and, finding more of the wise, sensitive male guide figure within, the deeper layers of Saturn. That transiting Chiron will be exactly on your Saturn at the same time speaks of exceptional breakthrough experience of healing and awakening, specifically around father wounds and absorbed fears about confronting one’s inner demons. This in turn will put your more in touch with your dharma as a guide and healer to the inner worlds and, allow more of your exquisite Eros to be freed from the shackles of guilt and repression.

It is clearly going to be an extraordinary time of your life, chaotic and liberating, shattering and enlivening, magical and unpredictable. Pluto will add even more depth and potency to the changes and one of the truly great things about his actions is that he will send good aspects to every part of your yod formations from your house of career. Whatever Uranus gets up to will in turn make for empowering and transformative changes in your professional life.

You are in the process to becoming truly alive to yourself, with great support in taking that into the world, with passion and excitement and a greater awareness of your mission in this life.

(The Yod is an aspect patterns where one planet receives inconjuncts, 150 degree aspects, from two other planets or asteroids that sextile each other. The inconjuncts are generally tricky, difficult aspects as they link energies in signs that have little in common and yet don’t have enough inherent energy to break through the conflicts on their own. Until something like Uranus comes through to break them up, they can stay stuck in the conflict for a long time and have a reputation for producing annoying low grade difficulties that sometimes manifest as chronic forms of ill-health.)

In this case the Ascendant is inconjunct a Moon/Neptune conjunction in Scorpio and a Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo)